Cut and paste

When the last day for complying with the 97th Constitutional Amendment dawned in the first week of July, Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister smiled. Mulayam Singh Yadav had a formula. He would take away ministerial jobs in deference to the constitutional obligation, but leave all perks and privileges intact. As The Sunday Express has brought to light, all the casualties of the ministerial pruning process were offered rehabilitation packages which ensured the dropped minister would remain just as cosseted — now parked as a chairperson of a state corporation. In UP, the exercise to meet the constitutional obligation to downsize ministries to 15 per cent of the total strength of the lower house of the state legislature passed off smoothly.

This is not just a story of a law being leached of its purpose in Ulta Pradesh. That, unfortunately, is a scenario the nation’s sensitivities have become deadened to. It is now clear the July deadline was met with a series of Mulayam-like ‘‘accommodations’’ all across the country. In Punjab and Himachal, the compensation packages predominantly offered the post of parliamentary secretaries. In the ministerially overpopulated Northeast, it still wasn’t enough to stave off severe heartburn, and some political damage. The Arunachal Pradesh government took a tumble immediately after the ministry was reduced from 41 to 12. Resentments of dropped ministers unhappy with their new takings continue to test the management skills of the parties in power in other states. But a common thread runs through them all, post-downsizing of ministry: a law touted as an important opportunity to trim governments by shedding excess weight stands roundly circumvented.

The comprehensive drubbing of a well-intentioned law testifies to more than the ingenuity of our politicians. It is another pointer to the unbearable lightweight-ness of our political parties. They don’t exist, unless they are in power or within smelling distance of it. Power, the perks and patronage that go with it, is what makes parties hold together. It is the only thing keeping shambolic organisations from limply folding up. There is no other binding force — be it ideology, policy or principle. The farce of downsizing also points to the limits of the law-making approach to political reform. Leaner governments will require more than the constitutional amendment. It must be backed up by an alert citizenry, a more demanding political debate.